728 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Platessa pusilla De Kay, op. cit. 296, pi. 47, fig. 153, 1842, New York. 

 Pseudopleuronectes americanus Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila, 216, 1864;; 



GooDE, Fish & Fish. Ind. U. S. I, 182, pi. 44, 1884; Bean, 19th Rep. 



Comm. Fish. N. Y. 245, pi. I, fig. 1, 1890; Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 



IX, 373, 1897; H. M. Smith, Bull. U. S. F. C. 1897, 108, 1898; Jordan & 



EvEEMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus. Ill, 2647, 1898; IV, pi. 



OOCLXXIX, fig. 933, 1900; Bean, 52d Ann. Rep. N. Y. State Mus. 



110, 1900; Sherwood & Edwards, Bull. U. S. F. C. 1901, 31, 1901. 



Body elliptic, an angle above eye. The length of the body is 

 two and one fourth time's its depth and four times the length of 

 the head. Head covered above with imbricated, strongly ctenoid 

 scales similar to those on body; blind side of head nearly naked; 

 interorbital space rather broad, strongly convex, its width half 

 eye; the space entirely scaled; teeth compressed, incisorlike, and 

 widened toward tips, close set, forming a continuous cutting 

 edge, some of teeth often emarginate, sometimes movable; right 

 side of both jaws toothless; highest dorsal rays less than length 

 of pectorals, and more than half length of head; anal spine 

 present. D. 65; A. 48; Lat. 1. 83. 



Dark rusty brown, spotted or nearly plain; young olive brown, 

 more or less spotted and blotched with reddish. 



The common flatfish is equally well known as flounder or win- 

 ter flounder. It ranges from the Chesapeake bay to Labrador 

 and appears to be alike abundant in both limits of its distribu- 

 tion. The flatfish was found in Blue Point cove, at Blue Point 

 Lifesaving station, and on Fire Island beach. It was moderately 

 common in all of these localities. The species is a permanent 

 resident of Great South bay, but undergoes a partial hibernation 

 in the mud in winter, and the adults in summer migrate into 

 deeper and cooler water. A few individuals were observed by 

 me in a fish pound at Islip Oct. 1, 1890. 



Dr Mitchill describes two color varieties of the flatfish. One 

 of these had a yellow margin on the lower side, surrounding the 

 white of that side. This border was three fourths of an inch 

 wide and in striking contrast with the pearl of the contiguous^ 

 parts within it and the brown of the adjacent fins. The other 

 variety, obtained Ap. 9, 1815, has " a whiteness of the upper side 

 nearly as. clear as that of the nether surface over rather more 



